California waste giant moving to Houston area

The Houston area will be home to another trash-hauling giant when California-based Waste Connections relocates to The Woodlands next year.

The company, which expects to report $1.6 billion in revenue this year, said it plans to move its headquarters here from Folsom, near Sacramento, beginning in January and hopes to complete the move in mid-July or so. A site has not been nailed down.

Houston's position as a hub for airlines put it on the short list along with Denver and Chicago.

"We're a nationwide company - coast to coast. We really needed to be able to get to and from places quickly from our corporate office," CEO Ron Mittelstaedt said, adding that Texas' warmer temperatures, business-friendly climate and a lack of a state income tax were also factors.

The company will bring 110 to 120 jobs here initially and will ultimately have 150 or more employees at the headquarters. The office will house executives and handle accounting, sales and marketing, payroll, legal, information technology and administrative functions. Employees have all been offered the chance to relocate.

The Houston area is already home to the largest U.S. trash hauler, Waste Management. But there is little overlap because Waste Connections concentrates on non-urban and rural markets. Only 15 percent of its revenue comes from areas where Waste Management also operates, Mittels- taedt said.

Waste Connections employs about 5,500 and serves more than 2 million residential, commercial and industrial customers in 29 states, most recently adding New York and Alaska. It also handles landfill gas-to-energy and waste-to-energy projects.

Waste Connections already has about 250 employees in the greater Houston area. Among its local operations: a waste hauling and recycling center near the Bush Intercontinental Airport, the Hardy Road Transfer Station, the Seebreeze Landfill in Brazoria County, and a waste and recycling facility in Angleton.

Specifics have not yet been determined and will depend on the site selected. The company also hopes to tap into the governor's Texas Enterprise Fund.

Waste Connections will likely lease 30,000 square feet for its interim office while it completes plans for a headquarters that will total 50,000 to 60,000 square feet, Mittelstaedt said. The site will likely be a new building, he said.